For the first time, Dish Network is opening an downtown Denver office. With Union Station down the street, the Dish Grand Central location hopes to appeal to young, urban tech workers. (Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon/ The Denver Post)

Source: Mondo Denver, 2016

We often hear anecdotes about companies having difficulties finding enough tech workers. Some are mentioned in a story in Sunday’s Denver Post about drastic changes six companies made to increase their pool of potential tech-job candidates. Read the story here: “6 drastic changes some companies are making to lure tech workers.”

But in reality, evidence that skilled tech workers are hard to find can be seen in the rising salaries of such workers. National recruiter Mondo shared the Denver-area’s range of salaries for 77 tech occupations, which are on the rise between 2 to 8 percent in the past year, according to Jessica Stoner, Mondo’s recruitment lead for its Denver office.

These are actual offers made to job candidates who were recruited by Mondo for its clients. Mondo also shared national salaries, as a comparison.

Keep in mind, these are salaries offered to people who have been recruited by Mondo for its clients. Stoner said that these folks aren’t just people actively looking for a job, but already have a job and “are highly sought after,” she said.

“What makes us different is that we don’t just look for hard technical skills you find on paper, but we screen on culture and how this person would fit into the company,” Stoner said. “Especially in Denver more than other regions, culture is huge. A lot of our clients, they like to work hard and play hard. They want someone who puts in a solid day’s work and remains available, but likes that these people do fun things outside their job.”

Otter Products has been beta testing the new Stratasys J750 3-D printer to quickly make prototypes that look like the final product. In some cases, that has cut down prototyping times from three days to 30 minutes.

The new printer, announced by Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Stratasys on Monday, has been quietly printing all sorts of smartphone cases in Fort Collins. Designers at Otter Products beta tested the machine for about the past five months and are pleased. For the first time, Otter Products can print prototype cases that look like the final product using the technology to mix and match colors and materials and print a product in one shot. Read more…

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Noted: Broomfield’s Level 3 Communications released a full report on how the telecom company tackles diversity at the company and in its hiring practices.

Included are mentions of women, LGBT, Veterans and even millennial workers. Not included, at least not that we can tell, are the usual numbers that show exactly how many women and minorities are employed as technical workers.

As noted in the press release, Level 3 says, “However, diversity by its own definition is the state of being diverse; and includes a range of different things. In Mary Beth’s (McGrath, senior vice president of global talent management) mind, diversity isn’t a destination to achieve; a company can’t check the box and move on. Diversity is a journey that has many milestones.”

Loveland’s LulzBot 3-D printers invites the public to see how its 3-D printers print more printers.

If you’ve only heard about a factory in Loveland where 3-D printers print more 3-D printer parts OR just watched a video of it, Aleph Objects is opening its headquarters for anyone to see the spectacle live in person this Friday, February 19, 2016.

Aleph and its LulzBot printers are known throughout the 3-D industry for being a thoroughly open-source company. The software is available for anyone to see and tweak.

The hope is that a thoughtful community will help build a better printer. “We believe you should be free to use, learn from, and improve the hardware and software you use,” Aleph says right on its site.

Faction Inc., a Denver-based provider of cloud infrastructure technology and services to resellers and agents, has raised another $6 million to fuel future growth.

The company, formerly known as Peak and PeakColo, says the money — a combination of debt and equity — will help it meet expected customer demand in the near future. Faction’s sales grew by 46 percent this year and should log something similar to that in 2016, officials said.

“Embracing our cause definitely paid off as shown with our strong growth in 2015,” Luke Norris, Faction’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “This new round of funding will enable Faction to continue on its rapid growth trajectory, serve a wider customer base and introduce additional, innovative products to the market.”

Welcome to our feature highlighting the numerous Colorado tech companies that make cool stuff. These little snippets are intended for readers to explore the technology being made right here. One company at a time, of course.

System76

If anything is going to make Linux consumer friendly, it’s free stickers. Get them with a SASE. And then check out Denver’s System76, which builds Linux-friendly computers with Ubuntu.

The hardcore geeks at System76 aren’t just building computers off Denver’s 16th Street Mall. They’re building Linux computers. More specifically, Ubuntu computers. Yup, no Windows here. Who uses this open-source operating system? Not many. But there’s enough business to keep this 14-person company kicking — it ships to 55 countries and “provides lifetime (human) support to about 25,000 customers.” In fact, customers are so appreciative, they are making fan videos to prove their dedication (Well, System76 is running an amusing Superfan contest). Ubuntu’s appeal is that it’s open source (read: it’s free) and simpler to use than you’d think because it’s a distribution, a.k.a. distro, of Linux. While not all consumer software works with Linux, there’s a whole realm of tools (also free), such as Libre Office and Gimp for photo editing. The appeal of System76? It just may break the myth that Linux is only for hardcore geeks. Did we mention free stickers?Headquarters: 1600 Champa St., Suite 360, in DenverFounded:2005Founders: Erik Fetzer and Carl RichellEmployees: 14Recent news: After kids started hacking the Minecraft-built “The Canaletto” painting traveling with the Smithsonian video game exhibit Art of the Game, museum curators transferred it to System76’s Wild Dog Desktop.Upcoming news: New computers launch Nov. 12Contact: 720-226-9269Home on the Web: system76.com

Are you a Colorado tech business in the consumer world? Submit your information at dpo.st/coinfo for consideration.

Both companies are in the computer storage industry. Seagate makes all sorts of hard drives for consumers, businesses and large enterprise users. Dot Hill, which was founded in 1984 and went public in 2000, builds software and hardware around storage systems.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Seagate, which also has a design center in Longmont, announced its intent to buy Dot Hill on August 18. Before the news hit, Dot Hill’s stock traded at $5.38 per share. Seagate ultimately paid $9.75 per share.

In August, Dot Hill employed 260 people, while Seagate had 1,400 in Longmont.

One in four Silicon Valley-based searches on house-hunting site Redfin looks outside Silicon Valley. That’s up from one in seven four years ago. And of those who look elsewhere, a fraction of a percent are hunting for a house in the Denver Metro area.

A fraction — Denver’s share is 0.32 percent to be exact — doesn’t sound like much. And Redfin won’t say how many people that entails. Maybe it’s just a dozen people. Maybe it’s thousands. We know it’s not millions — Redfin’s site attracts millions of visitors each month. Last June, Redfin’s unique visitors numbered about 6 million, according to this story citing traffic tracker ComScore.

Housing is also much cheaper here. Redfin puts the median house price in Silicon Valley at $1.05 million, compared to Denver’s $335,750. Still at that price, Denver lands at number 11 outside of the Bay Area for top regional searches, according to Redfin:

Courtesy of Redfin

Redfin did share where in Denver that Silicon Valley-ites are searching. North Boulder comes in at the top, followed by the Denver neighborhoods of Stapleton and then Washington Park. Keep in mind the list below is how that 0.32 percent of Silicon Valley house hunters breaks down by neighborhood searches. See the list: Read more…

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Smack dab in the middle, Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock and Cindy Parsons, Comcast’s vice president of public relations, hold the big scissors to officially open the new Comcast office. From left to right: Paul Washington, Executive Director of Denver Office of Economic Development; Jeff Dolan, Vice President of Government Affairs, Comcast; Councilman Albus Brooks, Council District 8; Hancock; Parsons; Tom Clark, Chief Executive Officer, Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation; Councilwoman Peggy Lehmann, Council District 4; Matt McConnell, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Comcast Wholesale. Image courtesy of Comcast.

Comcast Corp. literally cut the red ribbon of its new Wynkoop Office on Thursday with the help of Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock, who lent his expertise in the use of giant scissors.

The new 22,000-square-foot office, at 1899 Wynkoop St., is the new home for Comcast Wholesale and can fit about 200 people. Much of the new space will be filled by folks moving from the Comcast facility in Centennial, where 800 people remain. They join about 80 Comcast Spotlight employees on the fourth floor, Comcast said.

With Denver’s mayor and officials like Paul Washington, the city’s Office of Economic Development executive director, in attendance, Comcast said this was about adding jobs downtown and “helping to attract the region’s top technology talent,” said Cindy Parsons, Comcast’s area vice president of public relations.

“Comcast will be expanding jobs across Colorado. As a result, this downtown Denver space is the perfect home for Comcast Wholesale, a technology leader in content distribution and media management. Our goal is to attract and retain talent who live and work downtown, and to make the growing city an exciting place to live and work,” Parsons said.

My first Techstars Demo Day and can I say wow! The event itself, held Thursday at the Boulder Theater, was more boisterous, had better music and had more attendees in jeans than past events I covered back at my last gig in Orange County.

It’s difficult not to get excited about the start-ups presenting at the event, as the crowds constantly interrupted speakers with applause, cheers and laughs. And these are folks who, while probably big supporters, also PAID to get in to Demo Day. The event had a lot of interesting tweaks to existing and staid practices (HR, product recalls and manuals, credit cards… ) I hope that they make it. And Techstars does have a pretty good track record. Just check out their stats.

A few that I had time to write about (I hope to expand on these and the rest in the near future):

Final — With major retailers reporting credit-card hacks, Final offers a credit card with a number that changes when you decide. Use a number once, or let it expire after a certain time. They just started taking signups and already, there are 19,507 people ahead of me.

Expensebot — Leave it to artificial intelligence to manage your monthly expense report. “Spence” will remind you to take a photo of a restaurant receipt in case it’s a business lunch. Or ask if the taxi charge is a business expense. It learns your patterns and ultimately will do your expenses for you so you don’t even have to think about it.

All4Staff — As a new employee here at the Post, I don’t know how many forms I filled out and signed. At least I was getting paid while doing so! All4Staff wants to minimize paperwork and employer expenses by making the whole process digital. Through an app, a new employee can fill out forms, sign documents and snap photos of their driver’s license while at home before they start work.

Lassy Project — When Jessica Ridgeway was kidnapped and murdered two years ago in Westminster, communities rallied. And the Lassy Project got started. Their app creates trusted communities that parents can reach out to within seconds in case a child goes missing. Apparently, 7,500 users have already downloaded the app. It’s helped with five Amber alerts. And two dozen police departments support it. The app is free, with premium services offered to keep track of your child.

Notion — One of the few hardware startups, Notion turns your house into an Internet home where all your appliances, windows, doors, lights and utilities talk to you. Sensors placed around the house can determine if someone’s breaking into the liquor cabinet, the dishwasher is leaking or if the propane tank is running low before the big BBQ.

Wunder — A new investment fund that vets viable solar projects. It also acts as a utility by charging customers for the energy used, which it then pays back to investors monthly.

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Tamara Chuang covers personal technology and local tech news for The Denver Post. She previously spent 10 years doing the same thing for The Orange County Register before taking a hiatus to move here and become a SAHM to a precocious toddler.